In Response: Much credit is due UC San Diego

U-T

Hundreds of students at UC San Diego protested President Donald Trump's executive order banning travelers and refugees from entering the U.S. from seven predominantly Muslim countries on Monday, Jan. 30, 2017.

Hundreds of students at UC San Diego protested President Donald Trump's executive order banning travelers and refugees from entering the U.S. from seven predominantly Muslim countries on Monday, Jan. 30, 2017. (U-T)

ED SPRIGGS

My former colleague, Patrick Velasquez, makes a number of good points in his op-ed piece (“UCSD is failing in equity and diversity,” June 22).

I agree, for example, that UC San Diego must attract, enroll and graduate more brown and black students (black student enrollment and degrees awarded have averaged only 2 percent historically), should name Sixth College after a prominent Chicano/Latino, and needs to recruit and retain more black and brown faculty.

He does not, however, credit the campus, and particularly Chancellor Khosla, for the great efforts of late to better serve brown and black students, including: the creation of student resource centers for each group; hiring Dr. Becky Petitt to pursue diversity improvements; establishing the Chancellor’s Associates Scholarship Program (where most beneficiaries are Chicano/Latino students); and announcing a Black Academic Excellence Initiative in partnership with the UC San Diego Black Alumni Council (BAC) and its scholarship fund (BASF), including Khosla’s pledge to help raise $30 million for scholarships and related programs.

This historic initiative owes its existence to three factors: the precedent of UC Berkeley’s earlier $20 million African American Initiative; effective advocacy by the BAC/BASF (which oversees a $700,000 scholarship endowment at The San Diego Foundation); and Chancellor Khosla’s strong commitment to diversity.

While UC San Diego has not yet achieved what it needs to on the diversity front, it is on the right path. Its success in attracting and graduating more diverse students will greatly benefit not only UC San Diego’s reputation but the increasingly cosmopolitan San Diego community as well. We should all support these efforts.

Spriggs is chair of the UCSD Black Alumni Council and an Imperial Beach City Council member.